Palestinian Jews Driven to Self-Defense-Part IV

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

  Jewish Ha-Shomer (The Watchmen) Founded in 1909 they acted as defense of Jewish villages and the struggle for the employment of Jewish workers.  They then collaborated with the Upper Galilee police force and directed self-defense activities during the riots of 1920.  

In the beginnings of the Yishuv, the cowboy-like guards of Ha-Shomer had done a brilliant job of protecting Jewish immigrants.  By 1920, they needed a larger organization for protection.  It was formed with the name of Haganah---"Defense, "  which existed until 1948 when its members were transferred to TZEVA HAGANAH LE-ISRAEL.  Haganah had to form when the Jews realized the inadequacy of the protection given to the Jewish population under the British administration.  

                                             

                      1929 Riots in Hebron

Intensive efforts to strengthen the Haganah followed the 1929 Arab riots which resulted in a British policy of appeasement of the Arabs, which just gave them more energy and will.  By 1931, the Haganah split and the minority, chiefly right-wing groups, formed a separate organization;  these reunited with the Haganah in 1936 but certain elements remained outside and formed the nucleus of the IRGUN TZEVAI LEUMI. 

       One advantage of Tel Aviv is the beach. Stanley's family  

My 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, became the Chief of Intelligence of the Stern Group, started by Avraham Stern b: 1907 who in 1939-1940 had left the Irgun Tzevai Leumi, of which he had been a leader, and because of its refusal to continue anti-British activities, formed an underground organization later known as LOHAME HERUT ISRAEL-(Fighters  for the Freedom of Israel) or Lehi for short.   They felt that Britain needed to be fought notwithstanding the war effort against the Germans.  They had 2 fronts, like the USA would have. 

                                                 

 After Stern was killed, Yitzhak Jazarnitsky/Yezernitsky (Shamir)b: 1915 in Poland, immigrated to palestine in 1935 at age 20,  became one of its operational commanders, having joined in 1937.    They did assassinate Count Bernadotte, who was a big problem.   

                                                                           

   Avraham Stern b: 1907  born in Suwałki, present-day Poland where my paternal grandmother was born in 1886 (then part of the Russian Empire).-d: 1942, killed by British police while being arrested.  (Does that sound familiar?)  Jewish Lives Matter !  We're only 0.02% of the world population. We should be on an endangered list!  Stern died at age 35. At the age of 18, in 1925, Stern emigrated on his own to Mandatory Palestine. Stern's group was called by the British-- the Stern Gang-300 members. Stern called it LEHI.  One thing they did was to blow up the King David Hotel-or a section of it.  They warned the hotel first.  That was not Goldfoot's call of action.  Goldfoot also emigrated to Palestine at age 18 but from South Africa, with grandparents from Telsiai, Lithuania.    

Haganah was an unofficial army with 2 enemies;  the Arabs and the British.  the Arabs wanted to destroy the Jewish population, and the British wanted to destroy the Haganah.

Despite pressure from both groups, Haganah showed remarkable patience.  Its official policy was havlagah, "self restraint."  Many felt that every time a Jew was murdered, Haganah should murder some Arabs.  Haganah rejected the policy of retaliation.  There were 2 reasons for doing so.  

    1. It is wrong to murder innocent people.

    2. Haganah did not wish to give the British any further excuse to limit Jewish immigration.   

More and more Jews were coming to Palestine.  Some were drawn by the reports of the Zionists' accomplishments.  many more were driven by conditions in Europe, such as the 67,000 who fled from terrible persecution in Poland.          

                   Scene of October 2, 1938 massacre at Tiberias

The Tiberias massacre took place on 2 October 1938, during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Tiberias, then located in the British Mandate of Palestine and today is located in the State of Israel. After infiltrating the Jewish Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood, Arab rioters killed 19 Jews in Tiberias, 11 of whom were children. During the massacre, 70 armed Arabs set fire to Jewish homes and the local synagogue. In one house a mother and her five children were killed. The old beadle in the synagogue was stabbed to death, and another family of 4 was killed. At the time of the attack there were only 15 Jewish guards in the neighborhood of over 2,000 people. It was a water invasion they were unprepared with 2 guards.   In 1938, after a week of anti-Jewish rioting, British soldiers finally stepped in to restore order.  The British led arrested Arabs through Jerusalem's Damascus Gate.  

Jewish residents of Palestine developed some unusual methods of self-defense.  To prevent Arabs from tossing grenades into crowded buses, they attached protective screens to the windows.  

Resource: 

A Young Person's History of Israel 2nd edition, by David Bamberger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Stern

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Tiberias_massacre